NEW DICE

In the next stage of painting, I started on the donkey head and fairy facial features.

I painted in the ground more decisively and painted the large trees in the middle-distance.

On a new layer, I painted the trees in the far distance. These trees are being lit by the moon and not by the spotlight in the foreground. They get brighter and more bluish as they recede into the distance because of this lighting and because of aerial perspective.

I also painted the cast shadows from the figures onto the ground.

Titania’s tattoos were created in Illustrator and imported to Photoshop on another layer. I moved them around and placed them where I wanted them.

Then I changed the layer’s opacity to 60% so they would blend in to the skin a bit.

Finally, I made some adjustments to the image to brighten it up. I changed brightness, contrast and selective colour to get it where I wanted it. Here you can see the “before” image on the left and the “after” image on the right.

Working in Photoshop, I added a layer above my sketch. I selected a large brush with opacity and flow set to 60%. On the new layer, I painted roughly over the whole canvas a base colour that would also serve as the ground color.

Next I copied the sketch and put it on a new layer above the base colour. While I’m working, I paint on layers over the original sketch. I keep this sketch copy above the painting layers and use it to check and make sure everything is where it should be. I usually turn the visibility of this layer off except to make periodic checks.

OK, on to painting. I painted the sky lighter at bottom and darker toward the top. Now I could think of the base colour as being the ground.

Then on a new layer, I started to colour in the sketch like I was colouring in a colouring-book. Flat colour, filling in shapes.

Then I checked to make sure all my shapes are in the right place by turning on the sketch copy layer. I could also see where to go next. The sketch is like a map.

I decided to start giving some depth to the picture by painting the ground. At this point, it was necessary to make lighting choices. This scene takes place at night and although the moon is out, Titania and Bottom are deep in the dark woods so the moon doesn’t provide the light. One of the challenges of this illustration was to clearly represent the characters in the darkness of night. I also wanted Titania and Bottom to be of central importance in the illustration (rather than the moon or anything else). I decided to light the two figures with a soft spotlight. So, there’s a bright spot around the figures and the ground becomes darker as it recedes into the distance.

With the direction of lighting established (the light is coming from above and to the left), it was time to start painting shadows on the forms of the figures. I began with the skin of the fairies. Keeping it simple, I focused on 3 areas: highlight, mid-tone, and shadow. The base colour of skin that I had already painted served as the mid-tone. So, I painted the shadows and highlights with the light source always in mind. I also painted to fairies’ hair.

I moved on to clothing next: the fairies’ leaf clothing and Bottom’s wrinkly jeans.

In the next post: more painting.

To get started on the illustration for the play, I needed to position the elements that would go into the image. I started with the photograph of the location. Then, in Photoshop, I cut out the figures of Titania and Bottom from my layout sketch and put them in a new layer over the location. I moved them around a bit until I found a spot where they could believably be sitting.

I added the more detailed sketch of Titania and Bottom on top. Then I cut out the fairy actors and moved them around, resizing them until I was happy with them.

I also cut out the arm and head of Titania from my photo and placed them on top.

Then I started sketching on a layer above these elements. I blocked in the main forms I wanted to use in the background. I refined the figures of Titania and Bottom. Based on information about the actual costumes the actors would be wearing in the play, I gave Titania a sort of crown made of sticks. I also changed my mind about fairy placement.

I added bodies and wings for the fairies and added a few background details.

This was the final drawing I used to paint the image from. In the next post I’ll talk about the painting process.

This illustration was for the Bard in the Barracks production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to be used in their promotional material. It was painted digitally.

The first step in the production was to work out some thumbnail compositions to figure out how it would look and what to represent.

Here are a few:

I settled on a composition with Titania and Bottom in the foreground and Oberon and Puck in the background having a good laugh.

Next I started making some sketches to figure out what the characters would look like.

On these pages I was working on Puck mostly although Bottom is also there:

Here’s my conception of Oberon:

Titania and Bottom:

Finally I decided to include Titania’s fairy helpers and not to put Puck and Oberon in.

This production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is to be performed outside in a park. I went with Len Falkenstein, the show’s director to visit the site and took a few pictures. Here’s the one I used:

Len also allowed me to come to a rehearsal and take some pictures of the actors.

In the next post I’ll talk about how I put these elements together.